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Trusted Travelers Bruce Schneier's latest issue of Crypto-Gram has an article about the US government's new Trusted Traveler program. It's more in the way of feel-good measures that don't improve security, don't appreciably increase convenience, and may in fact make us more vulnerable. The Trusted Traveler program is based on the dangerous myth that terrorists match a particular profile, and that we can somehow pick terrorists out of a crowd if we only can identify everyone. That's simply not true. Most of the 9/11 terrorists were unknown, and not on any watch list. Timothy McVeigh was an upstanding U.S. citizen before he blew up the Oklahoma City Federal Building. Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel are normal, nondescript people. Intelligence reports indicate that al Qaeda is recruiting non-Arab terrorists for U.S. operations. Airport security is best served by intelligent guards watching for suspicious behavior, and not dumb guards blindly following the results of a Trusted Traveler program. He's also got an essay about security at the Olympics. A reporter from the Sunday Mirror, a newspaper in Britain, reported all sorts of problems with security. First, he got a job as a driver with a British contractor. He provided no references, underwent no formal interview or background check, and was immediately given access to the main stadium. He found that his van was never thoroughly searched, and that he could have brought in anything. He was able to plant three packages that were designed to look like bombs, all of which went undetected during security sweeps. He was able to get within 60 feet of dozens of heads of state during the opening ceremonies. ...
No major security incidents happened this year at the Olympics As a result, major security contractors will tout that result as proof that $1.5 billion was well-spent on security. What it really shows is how quickly $1.5 billion can be wasted on security. Now that the Olympics are over and everyone has gone home, the world will be no safer for spending all the money. That's a shame, because that $1.5 billion could have bought the world a lot of security if spent properly. Why isn't Bruce Schneier, or someone who thinks like he does, running Homeland Security?
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